Bitcoin ETFs Draw in $2.5B in a Month, Close to Erasing YTD Losses

Bitcoin ETFs have pulled in nearly $2.5 billion over the past month, erasing almost all year-to-date outflows and displaying what Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas calls “incredible fortitude” amid Bitcoin’s 40% price drawdown.

The March streak has been underscored by nine days of inflows exceeding $150 million, including a $458.19 million day on March 2 and back-to-back $200 million days on March 16 and 17, according to SoSoValue data.

Weekly flows remained strong, with $787.31 million in the last week of February, followed by $568.45 million and $767.33 million, $95.18, and $167.23 million in nearly four weeks of March, bringing the past month’s total inflows to approximately $2.5 billion.

The sustained inflows defy Bitcoin’s price weakness—the leading crypto remains 40% below its October 2025 all-time high of $126,080—and contrast sharply with traditional assets, according to CoinGecko data.

“After a brutal five-week stretch of outflows in February, March 2026 saw a ‘structural bid’ return,” Markus Levin, Co-founder of DePIN project XYO, told Decrypt. “US-listed Bitcoin ETFs attracted nearly $2.8 billion in net inflows by mid-March, effectively neutralizing earlier losses.”

When gold fell 40% roughly a decade ago, Balchunas noted, about one-third of its investors exited. “Bitcoin is just abnormal,” he said, highlighting the leading crypto’s relative strength considering escalating macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty.

Broader institutional interest

Bitcoin’s resilience comes as ETFs increasingly dominate broader markets.

ETFs now account for 37% of total U.S. stock market volume, the highest monthly average on record, The Kobeissi Letter posted Wednesday. That figure has climbed 13% since the start of 2025, surpassing peaks seen during the 2020 pandemic crash.

“Institutional investors are increasingly using ETFs as the primary tool for hedging, shorting, or reducing exposure to the broader market, rather than selling individual stocks,” The Kobeissi Letter wrote. “Record ETF activity signals how aggressively hedge funds are repositioning as volatility intensifies.”

The decoupling signals Bitcoin is now trading as a “forward-looking liquidity asset”—pricing in institutional positioning rather than short-term macro noise, unlike equities and gold, Levin explained.

The growth in ETFs, in general, is due to their regulated nature, making them simple and easy to access, without custody hassle, Andri Fauzan Adziima, research lead at crypto exchange Bitrue, told Decrypt.

“For Bitcoin, this means massive on-ramp efficiency—flows are rotating from gold ETFs into Bitcoin ETFs,” Adziima said, adding that it signals that institutions are “treating Bitcoin as a core portfolio diversifier, supporting sustained billions in inflows, and a tighter supply going forward.”

The shift in institutional positioning extends beyond Bitcoin ETFs.

Strategy filed regulatory paperwork to acquire another $44 billion in Bitcoin—roughly 590,000 $BTC at current prices—and a Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF is nearing launch. Meanwhile, less than 1 million $BTC remain to be mined over the next 114 years.

For now, the March inflow surge has positioned Bitcoin ETFs to fully recover their early-year losses with one strong day. IBIT, BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF, has already flipped positive for the year and ranks in the top 2% of all ETFs for year-to-date flows, according to Balchunas.

If this outlook continues, with a stabilized macro and geopolitical outlook, experts believe it could trigger an extended recovery rally for Bitcoin and the broader crypto market rather than another leg down.

Investor optimism has improved, with users on prediction market Myriad, owned by Decrypt‘s parent company Dastan, assigning a 45% chance of a broad-based crypto rally this spring—up from 37% on March 23.